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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25166746">Danganronpa Nightfall</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/JustAHumanMachine/pseuds/JustAHumanMachine'>JustAHumanMachine</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Angst, Detectives, Fan Killing Game (Dangan Ronpa), Gen, It’s gonna be a while before the first murder, Kidnapping, Mystery, Original Character Death(s), Original Character(s), Original Character-centric, Slow Burn, There’s sixteen of these guys and I need to develop them at least a little, There’s some gore be warned, These’ll be updated as the story continues, Work In Progress, ah yes finally conflict, the thick plottens</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-07-09</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-09-17</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-05 05:29:57</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>10,565</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25166746</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/JustAHumanMachine/pseuds/JustAHumanMachine</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>(Basically I took a bunch of my original characters and made a Danganronpa Killing Game with them and everyone solves mysteries)</p><p>Sixteen strangers are kidnapped, held in a massive laboratory run by an eccentric robot named Monosumi. Their rules are simple - stay here forever or kill to escape. But a mystery hides just beneath them, and the group must band together to solve it and escape before despair takes its murderous toll...</p><p>Current status: The first motive has been revealed. The prisoners grow desperate. 16 alive.</p><p>(There’s gonna be a murder soon I promise but stuff is finally happening)</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. The Watcher</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The watcher monitored the screens with a steely eye. There were sixteen of them, all in separate places, all alone. Some of them had already succumbed to the knockout gas - they checked their watch, the goons needed to pull that guy out before he suffocated - while others seemed almost unaffected. But one by one, the gas took its toll. A couple realized something was happening, but with nothing to fight, no enemy in sight, they just ran around and panicked. One of them actually managed to escape, jumping from a second story window, letting the fumes waft into the open air. It didn’t matter. The escapee stumbled away for a few moments, then collapsed, unable to continue. The last thing she saw before slipping into unconsciousness was the man in black hoods and masks, the same men she didn’t know were dragging off the others.</p><p>There was one exception - the one sitting calmly with a cup of tea, knowing full well what was happening elsewhere, the one with the other end of the special phone sitting at the watcher’s desk. Almost as if they had sensed the last person drop, the waiting person, the mastermind of their whole plan, fingers drumming impatiently on the teacup. They put down their drink and picked up the phone.</p><p>The watcher was already on the other end. “It’s almost done,” they said before the mastermind could get a word in. “They’re still pulling out a few of them, but everyone’s unconscious and will be taken care of soon.”</p><p>The mastermind’s low chuckle sent a shiver down the watcher’s spine as it rang through the phone. In the dark of the room, lit only by the harsh light of television screens, the watcher’s mind began to trick itself into thinking the mastermind was not on the screen before them, but waiting behind them in the shadows of the room. “Good,” they replied, their voice broken and shaky through the weak connection, but still carrying that sense of unshakable cunning through the static. “I suppose I’ll be on my way. Activate the gas.”</p><p>“What?”</p><p>“The knockout gas. Activate it.”</p><p>“I’ve already told you, everyone is unconscious-“</p><p>“For me, you nitwit.”</p><p>Despite the edge of irritation slipping into the mastermind’s voice, the watcher, confused, felt the overwhelming need to ask “Why?”</p><p>“I’ve got to blend in with them.”</p><p>“You’re going in with them? Aren’t they going to be murdering each other?”</p><p>“If everything goes according to plan, yes.”</p><p>“Look, I don’t think you’re connecting the dots here. They could murder you.”</p><p>“Oh, don’t worry.” The watcher could hear the mastermind’s smile through the strained connection. “I trust you won’t let that happen.”</p><p>The watcher sighed and flipped the last switch. As if they could smell the gas - they couldn’t, the watcher had made sure of that - the mastermind turned toward the hidden camera and smiled. “This is going to be great. I can’t wait to see our little plan unfold.”</p><p>“I’ll see you at the labs.”</p><p>The watcher got up and turned off the screens one at a time, their men knew to remove them and leave no evidence, and just as they reached the last screen, they heard the mastermind’s quiet voice, not from the phone, but from somewhere within the room.</p><p>“I’ll be waiting, Monosumi.”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Hey, wake up.</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The first thing Nina noticed as she came to was the pain. It was low and throbbing near the front of her head, making it hard to convince herself to open her eyes and face the burning sunlight. Sunlight, she thought, and realized she wasn’t sure what time it was. In fact, her memory slowly petered out, the last fuzzy recollection being her sitting at her desk in the dead of night, mulling over the case she’d been given. As the city’s great detective, Nina had made a habit of taking any case that came her way. That habit was likely to blame for her passing out, she assumed, she hadn’t slept for days.</p>
<p>The second thing she noticed was the something was sitting on top of her.</p>
<p>Nina’s eyes shot open, and she found herself staring into a face way too close to hers, one with glasses, one curious dark eye, and a long, jagged scar cutting where the other eye should have been. There was a woman sitting on her stomach.</p>
<p>“What the - get off of me!” Nina scrambled backwards and the woman jumped off of her, getting to her feet with surprising speed and elegance. The world seemed to flood into Nina’s still tired mind, the silver walls of the room bolted together, the moonlight dimly shining into a room unevenly lit by swinging lights, the gentle cold sending a shiver down her spine, the air eerily silent, enough that Nina felt she could hear both her frantic heartbeat and the one of the woman across from her.</p>
<p>Nina did not have a clue where she was or who this stranger was or why either of them were here. “Hello there!” The stranger said with a grin. “Glad to see I’m not the only one-“</p>
<p>Nina punched her.</p>
<p>“Ow! What on earth was that for?”</p>
<p>“Who are you?” Nina said in a harsh, cold tone of voice, as if she was unable to muster the energy to yell. “Where am I? What am I doing here? And why on earth where you on top of me?”</p>
<p>The stranger blinked. “Are you gonna add a how and a when to that list of questions? It would be neat if you could have a full set.”</p>
<p>Nina quietly wondered if she was locked in here with a crazy person. “Answer the questions.”</p>
<p>“I’m afraid I can’t answer all of them, I just woke up about half an hour ago and I have no clue why I’m here.” She chuckled. “My name’s Veronica Hisayoru, I can tell you that much.”</p>
<p>Veronica held out her hand and Nina, still quite suspicious, eyed the woman up and down. She was just taller than her, but given Nina’s height that wasn’t a high bar to hit, a wiry Asian woman with a massive black ponytail barely held back as hair flew everywhere. She was wearing a long white lab coat stitched together in more places than she could count, bandages on her face and neck, and wearing black gloves for no clear reason. Nina decided there was no harm in shaking her hand. “Nina Tezcat. You woke up here? Is this some kind of mass kidnapping?”</p>
<p>“Who knows? I’ve heard other people moving around in here, but I was too freaked to go see any of them. Stumbled across you.”</p>
<p>“Other people?” Nina looked around for a moment, found the door, and broke into a run towards it. “We need to talk to somebody!”</p>
<p>She had only been running for about a minute when she had to stop, gasping for air. Veronica calmly walked up to her, grinning. “A bit out of shape, huh?”</p>
<p>Nina, who was definitely on the chubby side, glared, which seemed to confuse Veronica. “Shut... up...”</p>
<p>“Oh, uh, did I say something wrong?” There was no malice in Veronica’s voice. From the look on her face, it seemed like she was just so inept with people, or so devoted to complete honesty, that she didn’t understand the concept of an insult.</p>
<p>“It’s fine. Just... where’s my hat? Think it fell off.”</p>
<p>She tossed Nina a blue beanie, which the small woman immediately shoved down over her dyed silver hair. Veronica gave her a hearty pat on the back. “Don’t worry, no need to rush, we’ll find the others eventually.”</p>
<p>So they walked through the hallways, unsure where to go, until the quiet buzz of conversation reached their ears. Following the sound that grew louder and louder, the duo pushed open a metal door and broke into a room flooded with light.</p>
<p>There was a whole group of people, fourteen from Nina’s count, all standing in the large room, some of them rubbing their heads, some muttering to each other, all seeming just as confused as they were.</p>
<p>“Hey, there’s two more!” A man headed over to them, small and slight with pale freckled skin, dressed in a shabby suit, black hair nearly overtaken by premature grey, and glasses in front of tired blue eyes. “Did you see anyone else on your way here? We don’t know how many people there are.”</p>
<p>“No. And we got lost a lot, opened a lot of doors, I doubt there’s anyone else.” Nina looked around the group. “Then again, I wouldn’t expect to see anyone else here at all, and there’s sixteen of us.”</p>
<p>The man nodded. “I guess this is it for now. I’m Aaron McNamara.”</p>
<p>“Okay, so does anyone have a clue why we’re here?” A woman asked, tall and with curly haired pigtails tied with ribbons, dressed impeccably and in an oddly symmetrical fashion. Quite attractive, honestly, provided her personality could hold up.</p>
<p>“What do you think, Alice?” Another woman, with dark skin and with curly black hair pulled into a bun and in casual wear that showed off a muscular physique, stood off to the side with her arms crossed and a slight accent Nina was struggling to recognize. “We’ve all been kidnapped.”</p>
<p>“So whoever did this has to be somewhere nearby.” The redheaded man was holding his chin in his hand, absorbed in his thoughts. He was a bit taller than most, long hair held back by a blue headband, an odd vacancy in his eyes, like he wasn’t quite in the same place as them. “It would be foolish to put this many people somewhere and expect us not to try and break out.”</p>
<p>“Maybe those two saw something.” A large man  in a coat - that was odd, wasn’t it the middle of summer? - walked over to them with a smile. He had dark skin and a mess of curls pulled away from his face, a scruffy beard, and chipped black paint on his fingernails as he shook their hands. “I’m Connor Tennyson. The girl with the pigtails is Alice Cypress, she is... sorry, what did you say your name was?”</p>
<p>“Iris Meallan,” The woman said with a slight smirk. Irish, Nina thought, that’s an Irish accent, although now she wondered what the woman was doing in the middle of Mexico.</p>
<p>“Alright, that’s Iris, and headband guy is Dante Tessaro.”</p>
<p>“Cool.” Nina glanced at the others, still absorbed in their own thoughts and conversations. “And who are the other nine?”</p>
<p>One of them, a girl with a messy blond braid and glasses tinted pink, saluted with a wide grin. “Roxy Amsel, at your service!”</p>
<p>“Well, she’s gonna die.” The man in the back, tall, almost scrawny, and dark haired with splotches of brown across pale skin, adjusted his glasses. The smaller guy next to him elbowed him in the side. “Hey, what was that for?”</p>
<p>“Dude, you can’t just say stuff like that!” Despite his threatening appearance - he had a lot of clear muscles and tattoos, two scars cut from the corners of his mouth to his ears, his hair was a mess that faded from brown to white and despite the copper colored tint of his skin, his eyes were an eerily pale grey - the man carried himself with a sense of joviality that made him endearing, especially next to his ill-tempered companion.</p>
<p>“Well, it’s true. She soft and sweet and too good for this. First one to die, that’s my bet.”</p>
<p>Connor gave Roxy a pat on the back. “Don’t worry about him. Okay, the pessimist with the 3-D glasses-“</p>
<p>“They’re not 3-D glasses!” The man yelled, and now that Connor had mentioned in, Nina could see the red and blue lenses that matched his eyes.</p>
<p>“Fine, the pessimist with the Sollux glasses is Jace Ferrum - don’t call him Jason, he really hates that - and Glasgow grin guy is Sora Shyama.” Connor them a thumbs up and Sora nervously touched the scars on his face. “They’re the only two who know each other.”</p>
<p>“No one else knows each other?” A small man with red hair and fierce blue eyes interjected. Nina realized even from a distance that he reeked of motor oil and gasoline. “Then why on earth were we all kidnapped?”</p>
<p>“He has a point,” a dark, elegant looking man with long, braided hair and glasses added. “Why would all of us and us specifically be taken here?”</p>
<p>“Beats me.” The woman shrugged, letting her purple hair fall off of her shoulder as she adjusted her tie. “I mean, I was in Egypt last time I checked, but Pigtails says she was in New York, Lawyerpants over there,” she gestured to the man with braided hair, “was in Scotland, and the clown claims she was in Japan. Something about that doesn’t add up.”</p>
<p>“Names, Heather. These two don’t know who that is.” Connor chuckled apologetically. “This is Heather Caiaphas, the redheaded mechanic is Titus Fortier, and the guy she’s dubbed Lawyerpants-“</p>
<p>“My name’s Azariah Al Tayeh,” he interrupted.</p>
<p>“Wait, who the heck is the clown?” Veronica asked.</p>
<p>“Oh, Cecily Nukke,” an athletic man cut in with an irritating smirk. “She’s over there with Roman Prydudd, they found an old piano and won’t stop hammering at it. Thing’s out of tune anyways, but it doesn’t stop them.”</p>
<p>Nina glanced over to the duo. There was a woman with round glasses and fluffy brown hair - “I want to touch it,” Veronica whispered - in a pastel purple dress and holding a round red nose she’d just taken off. The man actually playing the piano, pale with long black hair loosely pulled back, seemingly absorbed in the quiet tinny melody he produced, snapped out of it and turned to them. That was Roman, she assumed, and the woman beside him was Cecily.</p>
<p>“And I’m Blair Krieger, the one and only.” He tried to kiss Veronica’s hand. She kicked him in the gut.</p>
<p>“Well, nice to see you guys aren’t hostile,” Nina continued to Connor as Veronica and Blair got into a fight she seemed to be winning. “I’m Nina Tezcat, and the ponytailed terror is Veronica Hisayoru. I’m surprised you learned everyone’s names so quickly.”</p>
<p>“Eh, I teach at a high school. Fifteen names is nothing.” Connor chuckled before falling back into a more serious mood. “But seriously, what do we do?”</p>
<p>“We escape, of course.” Iris said. “There are sixteen of us, surely we can find a way out.”</p>
<p>“I doubt it,” Aaron muttered. “We still haven’t seen our kidnappers. They could be out there waiting for a chance to strike. We need to get a grip on our situation before we act.”</p>
<p>“Good plan, buddy.”</p>
<p>The voice came from above them.</p>
<p>Nina felt something drip on her hand. It was a drop of black liquid - oil? No it didn’t have the smell. In fact, she would have guessed it was ink, but why would ink-</p>
<p>“Holy mother of pearl.” Veronica was staring at the ceiling, her eyes locked on something it took a moment for the others to find. There was a massive splotch of black ink dripping from across the entire ceiling.</p>
<p>And then, from around the room, gears hidden behind broken furniture and building supplies flew out toward the center of the room. Someone screamed as they shot like bullets overhead, and planks began to move too, forming an impromptu stage and throne in the middle of the room. Then the ink descended from above, like it was living, like a blanket of darkness that threatened to swallow them all whole. The ink and the gears swirled together like a great whirlwind until, one by one, the gears clicked together into an almost human shape.</p>
<p>The last signs of movement died down. In the silence, the group slowly looked up to what was in front of them. Composed of ink and gears, there stood before them a man in a suit and top hat, curly hair dripping with ink, white dots like freckles under eyes that glinted green. It was almost human, just close enough, with a few movements that swung a bit too far and carried him into the realm of monstrosity.</p>
<p>The inkman spread his arms in a grand gesture, suddenly growing a cape a wizard’s staff as he grinned down at them. “Hello, ladies and gents. It’s a pleasure to have you here. I’m Monosumi, and I’m in charge until you leave or you die.” He sat down and slouched like a monarch on his throne. “Welcome to the beautiful disaster named Blackbird Laboratory.”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. The Master Of The Ink</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Blackbird?” Dante and Veronica both said at once.</p><p>“Yep, Blackbird Laboratory!” Monosumi said with a dramatic flourish. “Forgive the disrepair, this old place has been abandoned for years, but I’m sure I can clean it up and make it a bit more comfortable.”</p><p>“Who are you?” Titus yelled. “What on earth are we doing here?”</p><p>“Calm down, Fortier. I’m Monosumi, I’ve already told you that, weren’t you listening?”</p><p>“Listen, sir,” Aaron said with a calm formality that would have been humorous anywhere else. “We don’t know what’s going on, we don’t know why we’re here, and I don’t know what your plan is, but there’s not a lot you can do if we’re just confused.”</p><p>“Fair point. I like this one.” Monosumi jumped off his throne and landed in the middle of the captives. Cecily screamed, and Roman put a hand on her shoulder protectively. “Aw, are you scared, love?” Monosumi turned to her with a nightmarish, too wide grin with way too many teeth. “You should be. Now you’ve all been kidnapped.”</p><p>“We figured,” Heather muttered.</p><p>“I’ve brought you to my laboratory,” Monosumi continued, trying to ignore her. “I’ve done my best to provide adequate living conditions for you. Just because I kidnapped you from your homes in the dead of night doesn’t mean I’m a savage.”</p><p>“I?” Aaron gave him an odd look, then thought for a second. “You did all this by yourself?”</p><p>“Oh, of course not. You think I could kidnap all of you from around the world and drop you here in such a short period of time?” Monosumi chuckled. “Nah, I’ve got people working for me. Anyway, the whole place is yours, I’m just gonna call you guys to my office every now and then - oh, and don’t break down any doors or walls, that’s rule number one of the list I’m making up right now. I’m very good at this.”</p><p>“Well, that would keep up from leaving,” Nina muttered. “I guess these guys aren’t as careless as I thought...”</p><p>“Excellent point, Miss Tezcat.” Nina’s head shot up as she broke from her thoughts, finding Monosumi pointing at her as a blackboard and pair of spectacles appeared from nowhere. He put on the glasses and pulled a long pointer and a piece of chalk from his hair. “Now, you may think you’re not allowed to leave. That’s simply untrue. You are allowed to leave under one condition.”</p><p>Monosumi walked to the blackboard and wrote in big white letters: “Get away with murder.”</p><p>The room was dead silent, enough that Nina could hear the chalk scrapping on the blackboard as Monosumi underlined what he’d written. “Any questions?”</p><p>The silence continued. “So you all got it. Murder someone, if the others can’t find out whodunnit, you get to leave.”</p><p>“M-murder?” Iris stuttered.</p><p>“Yes, murder. You should have responded when I asked for questions.”</p><p>“You really think we’d kill someone?” Connor barked. “That’s ridiculous! We wouldn’t stoop to such-“</p><p>Blair raised his hand. “Question. If I killed everyone and no one was left to vote, would I get off scot free?”</p><p>Silence. “Wow, you’re messed up, kid.” Monosumi threw the pointer at Blair, where it dug into the concrete an inch from his head and melted back into ink. “Look, new rule number two - one murder at a time, please. If there’s a second murder before we resolve the first one, you don’t get to trial, you don’t get to escape, and if you just run around on a murder spree I’ll kill you myself.”</p><p>“Stop talking about this like we’re going to murder each other.” Jace growled. “I think we’d all much rather kill you.”</p><p>Monosumi paused and glanced around the group. “Rule number three - no attacking me. It’s a bad idea anyway. Murders will only count when a student kills another student.”</p><p>“Student?” Azariah frowned. “Why call us that?”</p><p>“Well, captive is just so cold, subject feels weird, and I feel like we’re not quite chums yet. So students.”</p><p>“Look, it doesn’t matter, right?” Roxy crossed her arms with a small, determined smile. “It’s not like the world has just forgotten us. Someone’s going to call the police, and they’ll trace it back here long before any of us are driven to murder.”</p><p>Monosumi just grinned. “Sure. You can tell yourself that. I doubt you’ll last long anyway.” His eyes flicked to Nina so quickly she wasn’t sure it had happened. “I mean, they’re missing their best detective...”</p><p>Alice nervously messed with her hair. “...we’re not hidden that well. We’ve all got people who would realize we’re missing, someone had to see us being kidnapped, they’d have to be able to trace the trail... right?”</p><p>Silence.</p><p>“Screw this.” Titus sprinted for a nearby wall with a barricaded window. He climbed up some broken metal pipes as Monosumi yelled after him.</p><p>“Hey! Hey, stop it!” Titus didn’t stop, and began to pull one of the boards loose. Monosumi glared, then his inky skin began to boil - to literally bubble and begin to spill out in tendrils as he rose into the air and seemed to grow into a great shadow. “I - said - STOP!”</p><p>The ink slammed against the wall, swallowing Titus in its giant mass. Nina froze. Was he dead? Veronica gave a shout and ran toward the blob of ink as it began to peel away from the wall.</p><p>“Oh, cool your jets, Hisayoru.” Monosumi, floating in the air like some giant ink space demon, slammed Titus into the wall, holding him down with giant black tentacles. “See? He’s fine. But if he keeps this up...” Nina could see the tentacles tightening around Titus as he struggled not to scream. Right when it seemed like the man would snap in half, Monosumi dropped him onto the ground, where he lay gasping for breath.</p><p>His eyes glowing with a dangerous glare, Monosumi snapped his neck to look back at the group. “Any last questions?”</p><p>Out of habit more than anything, Sora raised his hand. “I have a small question. I’m not planning on killing anyone, but what happens if a murderer is found out?”</p><p>Monosumi’s eyes remained glued on Sora as his body twisted to face them. “A murderer must hang, Shyama. Besides to you want a killer just waltzing around with the rest of you?”</p><p>No one answered - they just glanced around the group, a few in pairs and most standing alone, slowly shifting away from each other, realizing just how much they didn’t know.</p><p>“N-none of us would k-kill each other, right?” Cecily asked, shaking like a leaf.</p><p>“No.” Aaron’s face was stone cold and determined. “We wouldn’t. We’re better than this guy’s little game.”</p><p>There was a deep fear in Roman’s eyes, one he was trying not to show. “Are we?”</p><p>Aaron didn’t have an answer. None of them did. Nina glanced to Veronica, who was nervously rubbing her hands on her neck, messing with her hair, generally being fidgety, although she lacked the tension that usually accompanied such behavior.</p><p>Monosumi laughed, a warm, genuine chortle. “Ah, don’t scare each other, that’s no fun. Well, everyone should get to your rooms now. It’s almost midnight, and circumstances are no excuse to let your sleep schedules fall apart. Rule number... I’ve already lost count. Four? Anyway, new rule, everyone needs to go to their rooms for nighttime. All right, move along!”</p><p>The room was still frozen, but slowly, they began to move, then seemed to snap out of the spell and leave as quickly as they could, Monosumi gesturing toward the rooms. Nina followed them, keeping an eye on each one, trying to get a grip on the strangers she was locked in with. As she watched, she noticed Veronica was not in her sight. Was she behind her? Nina took a few steps backwards, peeking out at Monosumi on his throne from the shadows of the hall.</p><p>“Why are you doing this?”</p><p>That was Veronica. Nina couldn’t see her, and suspected the throne hid her from view. Why anyone would want to be in the same room as that maniac, especially alone, was beyond her.</p><p>“Ugh, what is it with you guys and waiting to ask questions?”</p><p>“Why are we here? Why us?”</p><p>There was a pause, almost as if Monosumi was searching his mind for an answer. “The answer? Simple. Despair.”</p><p>“Despair?” There was an odd edge in Veronica’s voice.</p><p>“Yes. Your old friend, Doctor. Now I suggest you go before you lose my temper.”</p><p>Veronica laughed, like she was trying to recover her sense of energy. “Hey, I’m not scared of some floating inkwell.”</p><p>Still, she headed into the hallway. Nina acted like she’d merely been lagging behind, and Veronica seemed to buy the act. “Hey buddy! So, any clue where the rooms are? I don’t wanna get lost again. Maybe they’ll have name tags. I still haven’t learned anyone’s names. Except you, you’re Nina, right? Can I call you Nines?”</p><p>Nina gave her companion a cold look, then found herself smiling at her odd acquaintance with the disheveled demeanor and rapid fire voice. She seemed more intelligent than she let on, and harmless, really, a valuable ally if a murder actually... Nina didn’t want to think about that. She chuckled softly. “Yeah, Nines is fine.”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Familiar Strangers</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Nina couldn’t sleep. She supposed it was her odd situation that kept her awake as she lay in bed with the lights off, that despite the run-down state of the place these rooms were still in good condition, that there were exactly sixteen of them, that there were little things set up exactly like at home. Was it to make her feel more familiar with this place? That just made her more confused and unnerved. She was a prisoner, and Monosumi’s attempts at affability weren’t changing that.</p><p>But it was something else that was eating at her mind. Monosumi had said the only way for them to escape was to get away with murder. Nina wanted to believe there weren’t any killers among them, that no one here was desperate enough to make that move, but she’d been backstabbed enough times to know anyone could be a killer.</p><p>Nina got out of bed and turned on a light. There was a small notebook and set of pencils on the nearby table, so she sat down and wrote out as many names as she could remember. She was stuck with fifteen people she knew nothing about, people who would grow desperate soon, people who might move to murder...</p><p>Then again, she was the world’s greatest detective. Nina may not have known anyone in her group, but she doubted they had the skills to outwit her, and an investigation would make the killer - the hypothetical killer, she hoped against hope - as clear as day. Unless she was the one murdered. Nina decided no one could know about her skills. She didn’t need any to make herself a target.</p><p>Nina turned back to the list of names. There were only four she could connect to faces - Connor, Blair, Aaron, and Veronica. Five, actually, she was pretty sure the guy who’d tried to escape was Titus.</p><p>She started with Titus as she wrote down a wild stream of thoughts. He had tried to escape first, before their captor had even left the room, so clearly, he was desperate. But it seemed part of his panic was due to the murder rule... Nina decided she’d keep an eye on him, but doubted he’d be the first to snap.</p><p>Nina paused, realizing how she was thinking, like a murder was inevitable... she snapped out of it and moved on to Blair. He was clearly willing to murder, but he’d also revealed that to the entire group. No one would be stupid enough to act with such suspicion on them. Then again, Blair did not seem the brightest. Definitely willing, but unlikely to pull such a feat off.</p><p>Luckily, those two were the only ones she was worried about. Aaron had resolved that no one would die, and after years of backstabbing and treachery, Nina knew sincerity when she heard it. She knew little about Connor, but he was friendly and kind. Perhaps he would kill if pushed hard enough, but not now. And Veronica... to be honest, she intrigued Nina. She was a ditzy maniac, but that seemed affected, in an odd way, like she wasn’t quite who she tried to be. Still, she didn’t seem like a killer, but...</p><p>“Hey, rise and shine, Tezcat!”</p><p>Nina jolted awake. The first thing she saw was Monosumi sitting on the desk, where she must have drifted off without noticing. She grabbed the paper on instinct as Monosumi slid off the desk and landed in a puddle on the floor. “Oh, it looks like you’re trying to make friends!”</p><p>“No, I’m not. I’m assessing enemies.”</p><p>Monosumi gave her an odd look. “Well, either way, it’s nine in the morning and you might want to head out. Wouldn’t want the others to think you’ve been murdered.”</p><p>And with that, he slipped away, like a bizarre serpent made of ink and bad dreams.</p><p>Grumbling to herself, Nina grabbed her hoodie and hat where she’d haphazardly flung them over a nearby chair, and with her notebook and pen stuffed in her pocket she headed out into the hallways.</p><p>She ran straight into Aaron and... Heather, she recalled, the one with the purple hair, the two of them deep in a conversation. “Gah! Hey, watch where you’re going!” Heather snapped as Nina bumped into her.</p><p>“Give me a break, I just woke up,” Nina grumbled.</p><p>“Just woke up?” Aaron said in shock. “You sleep late. I would have thought the fire woke you up.”</p><p>Nina paused. “What fire?”</p><p>She found out a few minutes later when she found Jace and Veronica in what she assumed was a kitchen, trying to put out a fire in the sink.</p><p>“Hey, Jace, does the water not work?”</p><p>“No, it works perfectly fine, but-“</p><p>“Then why aren’t we using that?”</p><p>“Because it’s-“</p><p>The sink exploded with flaming liquid. “-a grease fire, you idiot!” Jace continued to shout and grumble as he tried to put out the fire, and finally managed to quench the last flames just in time for the sprinklers to turn on.</p><p>The kitchen now smelled of smoke and bad decisions. “Oh, hey.” Jace gave a halfhearted wave to Nina. “You’re... Nora, right?”</p><p>“Nina.”</p><p>“Eh, close enough.” He shrugged and went back to cooking. “Never been good with names anyway.”</p><p>“Just ignore him,” Aaron muttered as he drug Nina away. “Anyway, we were discussing the possibility of escape.”</p><p>The word escape sent a chill down Nina’s spine. “You’re going to kill someone?”</p><p>“What? No!” Aaron shuddered. “I wouldn’t dream of it. We were thinking of escaping by other means.”</p><p>“I doubt we’ll have a chance at that.” Veronica popped up behind them, making Aaron jump. “I’ve been exploring the building all night, and there’s not a single weak point. Monosumi knows what he’s doing.”</p><p>Aaron scowled, giving her a dirty look. “Could you let us have something to hope for?”</p><p>“False hope? No. But I’d say our best bet is that someone notices we’re missing and calls the police.” Veronica grinned. “Until then, we stay calm and chill out. This place isn’t bad.”</p><p>“But it’s still a prison,” Aaron replied. “We could be in Buckingham Palace, and it wouldn’t mean a thing if we weren’t allowed to leave.”</p><p>“Hey, has anyone been in here yet?” Heather pointed to a closed door with a small, blocked window.</p><p>“I tried,” Veronica said. “It was locked, and when I tried to break the door down, Monosumi popped out and told me breaking doors was against the rules.”</p><p>Nina checked beside the door. There was a small plaque with something written in German on it. So they were in Germany. How had she been moved off of the continent before she woke up?</p><p>She was jolted out of her thoughts by a nearby door swinging open. Connor walked out, carrying a small stack of books. “Oh, hey guys!” He chuckled, holding the door open for Dante behind him. “There’s a whole library in there! Most of the books are in other languages, but there’s a lot in English too.”</p><p>Dante gave the group a glance, then walked up to Veronica, holding a small notebook. “You’re Hisayoru, right?”</p><p>“Yes,” Veronica said, a nervous expression frozen on her face. “Why?”</p><p>Dante pushed the notebook into her hands. “Any clue what this says? It looks important.”</p><p>Veronica opened the notebook and flipped through it, showing scattered messes of Japanese frantically spilled across the pages. “Only bits and pieces. Doesn’t help that the handwriting is awful.”</p><p>“Ah, that’s a shame.” Dante shrugged and elbowed Connor, then shouted back to the group as they headed off. “Well, it probably wouldn’t have helped us escape anyway.”</p><p>“I suppose we’re all thinking of escape.” Azariah had approached so quietly that his sudden intrusion into the conversation made Veronica jump with a shout. “I just heard Iris and Titus discussing the same thing.”</p><p>“Well, what else would we be talking about?” Heather replied with a snort of laughter. “We’re being held against our will, what kind of maniac wouldn’t want to escape?”</p><p>“You seem to have forgotten our circumstances, Miss Caiaphas.” Azariah adjusted his glasses. “Our only threat of harm is from each other. If no one attempts to escape, the police should show up and we’ll all be fine.”</p><p>“I...” The group turned to Nina as she trailed off, absorbed in her own thoughts. “I think that might not happen.”</p><p>“What?” Heather shouted. “Why wouldn’t-“</p><p>“We’ve been abducted from all around the globe,” Nina explained, “and we’ve been here for almost a day, maybe longer. It’s more than enough time for someone to notice we’ve gone missing. Not to mention how difficult it would be to take sixteen people to a different country against their will and have no one notice. They should be here soon, but...”</p><p>“Well, it’s been a pleasure speaking to you, but we have to go now.” Aaron sped off into the nearest unlocked door. He reemerged a few seconds later. “That was a broom closet.”</p><p>“Uh, okay.” Azariah awkwardly shuffled away. Heather headed after him, yelling insults, as Aaron turned to Nina and tried to guide her away from Veronica, who was still flipping through the notebook.</p><p>“Listen,” he hissed under his breath. “I know things are bad and we might not get rescued, but you can’t say that. You’re one of the smartest ones in this group, certainly the smartest one I trust.” Aaron gave Veronica a quick glare as he continued. “Tezcat, you have to know what will happen if this group doesn’t have hope, doesn’t have other options.”</p><p>“They’ll take the clear path of escape. Murder.” Nina said it in a cold, calculated tone, trying not to think that that victim could be her.</p><p>“Exactly. They can’t know.”</p><p>“We can’t lie to the others. We’re all in the same situation, and any information can help us survive long enough to escape. Especially if it turns out we’ll have to break out ourselves.</p><p>Aaron sighed. “I know. But if our situation is that dire, that we’ve been forgotten and left to kill each other, people are going to do wild, desperate things. Despair has a way of messing with people.”</p><p>Despair. The word shot through her mind like a bullet shattering glass. Nina glanced back to Veronica, who was still reading the notebook, but she could tell by the way she stood, the tension in her shoulders, the fact that her eyes were barely focused on the notebook, that she was listening to every word they said. She remembered how Monosumi had given that same word, despair, as an answer for what he was doing. Nina kept staring at Veronica, and felt like she wasn’t looking at the same chaotic scientist, but someone much more serious and dangerous, someone who would do what she had to to accomplish some goal. The worst part was, Nina wasn’t sure if that was an honest reading of the scientist, or her brain bending to see the worst in every person who could potentially turn to murder.</p><p>“Oh, hey Nines.” Veronica grinned at them, and the image of the dangerous stranger was gone. “I don’t know why I’m still trying to read this. I understand none of it.”</p><p>Nina found a small smile spreading on her face. She slammed it down, then turned back to Aaron and whispered. “I just want to keep everyone alive.”</p><p>“Don’t worry, so do I. And if we can trust each other-“ </p><p>“That’s one less murder we have to worry about?”</p><p>Aaron chuckled. “Now you’re getting the idea. Come on, let’s go see if Ferrum has cooked anything besides fire.”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. A Motive For Murder</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>A week passed without incident. Nina grew familiar with the facility and the other prisoners, slowly getting a grip on who they were and growing the slightest bit attached. But she knew that was unwise. The windows were still boarded, Monosumi was still running around and popping out when you least expected him, and no one had forgotten his offer of escape.</p><p>So Nina kept her list in order, keeping track of her involuntary companions. They had begun to form small groups, or find at least one person to trust. Jace and Sora were the first to do so, given that they were the only two who knew each other beforehand. They were comical, honestly, the serious and bitter Jace next to the more optimistic and emotional Sora. Jace, being the only one who could cook without setting everything on fire, had almost forcibly taken that responsibility from Monosumi. This had begun a gentle slide that basically made him a maid by the end of the week.</p><p>This was not without its issues - Jace was a bitter nihilist, someone they could easily see pushed to murder, and most of the group found putting such a man in sole control of their food a really bad idea, especially since the various labs across the facility had more than a fair supply of poison. Nina wasn’t afraid. While he was high on Nina’s list of potential killers, Jace was smart enough to know that if anyone was poisoned, he would be the prime suspect.</p><p>Sora, along with Roman, Roxy, and Cecily, had found a way to cope - there was a room filled with various instruments that, with a little repair and tuning, were perfectly serviceable for the four of them. Nina knew this because this room was right next to hers and the walls were not soundproof. The first night she had put up with it, expecting them to get it out of their systems and realize they shouldn’t do this in the middle of the night. The second night she realized her mistake.</p><p>The sixth night she heard a door slam next to her, followed a few minutes later by Heather and Titus shouting. Then a few minutes passed and the music started again, softer this time, but still loud enough that Nina got up with a groan and left. Stopping the musicians seemed to be a lost cause, so she made her way toward the kitchen, feeling more than a little hungry.</p><p>She was about halfway there when whispered voices reached her ears. They were coming from a long, dark hallway, one Nina knew had only locked doors. Her steps filled with trepidation and curiosity, Nina crept over toward the voices as what they were saying slowly became clear-</p><p>“Look, it’s a fingerprint scanner, not a keypad, see?” That was Veronica. Nina peeking around the corner and saw her backed against a door, Blair looming over her with a steely glare. The murder rule snapped back into Nina’s mind, and for half a second she froze in panic - Blair calmly shoved Veronica out of the way and started fiddling with the keypad.</p><p>“Give me the sheet. Are you sure his fingerprints will work?”</p><p>As if in answer, the door clicked open. Veronica nodded. “It was in a notebook Dante found. I couldn’t read most of what it said, but I recognized his name.”</p><p>“Fine, but why this room?”</p><p>The two of them slipped inside, taking the conversation with them. Nina crept behind them, waiting at the door, listening.</p><p>The first things she heard was a sharp intake of breath. “I knew it.” Veronica’s voice was cold and afraid. “Oh, this is bad. This is very bad.”</p><p>“What is it?” Veronica didn’t respond, instead heading toward the door and ignoring Blair’s frantic steps behind her. “Hey, what did you find?”</p><p>“I can’t tell you that, not yet. I don’t know who I can trust-“</p><p>There was a sudden crash, then Veronica screamed. “Hey!” Nina ran in and saw Blair holding Veronica to the ground, a knee pressed into her back, pulling a small cartridge from her hands.</p><p>“Chill out.” Blair stood up, gave Veronica one last kick, and stomped out. “I wasn’t gonna hurt her. But you should do something about that shady twerp.”</p><p>As his footsteps vanished into the night, Nina helped Veronica to her feet. “Are you okay?”</p><p>“Yeah.” Veronica brushed herself off, a dark, hollow look in her eyes. “I’m fine. I just need to think about this.” She paused for a moment. “Can I trust you?”</p><p>Nina wanted to say yes, but she had no way to prove her point. “As much as anyone here.”</p><p>“Eh, that’s not the best answer.” Veronica shrugged, her jovial manner gone. “Fifteen of us, sure, we’re trustworthy. But that little cartridge Blair stole proves one of us isn’t a quite a prisoner...”</p><p>Veronica wandered off, muttering to herself. Nina watched her stumble absentmindedly into her room, wondering what on earth THAT meant, before heading back to her own room, double checking the lock on the door. It wasn’t a fingerprint scanner, thankfully. It was honestly scary how easily those two had gotten past that.</p><p>Worry and fear kept Nina up for most of the night. At the crack of dawn she got up and headed to the cafeteria, where she ran into Aaron and Azariah holding a whispered conversation. They went silent the second she sat next to them, and after what she’d witnessed last night, that was more than a little unnerving.</p><p>“What are you talking about?” Nina said with a glare.</p><p>“Nothing much,” Azariah replied. “We just noticed something odd last night.”</p><p>“Blair and Veronica?” She asked, and Azariah jumped.</p><p>“How did you-“</p><p>“I saw them. Veronica stole some cartridge or something from a locked room, then wouldn’t tell Blair what it was, so he took it from her. She was really cryptic about the whole thing.”</p><p>“Hm.” Aaron was staring at the table, absorbed in his thoughts. “I was already suspecting those two...”</p><p>Nina remembered what Veronica had said, how fifteen of them were trustworthy, and the other one... Nina didn’t know what was going on, but she began to feel dread creeping through her.</p><p>“Hey, where on earth are all the others?” Monosumi popped up next to them, forcibly shoving himself into the conversation. “I mean, it’s not that early. And I need to talk to you guys.”</p><p>“Go choke on a socket wrench, you horror movie reject.” Heather wandered in, yawning. “Besides, shouldn’t you have control of all those screens everywhere? Can’t you make an announcement or something.”</p><p>Monosumi paused. “I completely forgot about that.” Then he vanished, splashing into an inky pile on the floor before zooming away.</p><p>A few moments later the screen next to their table flickered to life. “WAKE UP!” Monosumi shouted. “Hello everyone!” He said a few seconds later in a much cheerier tone. “Everyone report to the cafeteria immediately. We need to talk.”</p><p>It took a few minutes, but the grumbling group eventually made their way into the room. Veronica was the last to arrive by a wide margin, and went she sat down Blair got up and moved away from her. It was a small thing, but there was little that Nina disregarded.</p><p>Monosumi popped out of nowhere again and stood on the table, but now he was holding a tall stack of CDs. “Okay, everyone’s here, good! So, there hasn’t been a lot of murder.”</p><p>“That’s a good thing,” Titus yelled.</p><p>“Yeah, for you guys. But it’s been a week now, and over a week since we kidnapped you guys, and there’s been a disappointingly low amount of stabbings. So I got these.” Monosumi dumped the CDs onto the floor. “Make sure you got your own and no one else’s, that wouldn’t be fair.”</p><p>Veronica was the only one who moved. She picked up a disc with “V. Hisayoru” scribbled on it in black marker. “And what are these supposed to be?”</p><p>“CDs.”</p><p>“I knew that much.”</p><p>“Well, with some of you I have to make sure.”</p><p>Cautiously Aaron picked up a few discs. “This one’s yours,” he said, tossing one of them to Heather. “And Connor, I think this is yours...”</p><p>The group began to get their discs, and Nina brushed some dust off of hers, wondering what on earth was inside. “I’d like to know what’s on these things,” Iris said.</p><p>“Oh, just some motivation.” Monosumi gave them another too wide grin. “There’s a computer lab down the hall, I’d recommend wearing the headphones. These are... personal.”</p><p>Then he leapt far too high into the air and vanished among the crossbeams. Connor looked at the disk in his hands and shrugged. “Well, I suppose there’s no harm in watching these.”</p><p>“What if they have a hypnotic video that’ll make us murder each other?” Roxy said, frantic.</p><p>“I’ve got my doubts about that,” Alice replied with a chuckle. “Anyone know where that computer room is?”</p><p>“Yeah, it’s over here.” Veronica led the group down the halls, and Nina noticed she was leading them to the room right next to the one she’d broken into last night. Blair noticed too, giving the room a dirty look, the door bolted shut with thick iron bars.</p><p>The computer room needed no trickery to access - the door was already cracked open. The lights were off inside and the switch beside the door did nothing, but the room was illuminated by dozens of glowing blue computer screens. Nina sat at one in the back corner of the room, and noticed how most of the group spread out, to screens out of the others’ views. She popped the disc from its thin plastic case and slid it into the computer, then put on the headphones beside her and waited as the little circle spun away until a black window popped up on the screen.</p><p>Then she saw a world on fire.</p><p>To anyone else, the sight of the burning city would have just been ordinary carnage. Not to Nina. She knew that city, she knew that day, she knew that fire. She knew that failure. She barely heard Monosumi’s voice in her ears mingled with the screams she couldn’t erase from her memory. It didn’t matter what he was saying, what mattered was that he knew. Nina had never told anyone why she cared about that accident as much as she did, but Monosumi was telling her everything she and only she could know.</p><p>Sora staggered backwards out of his chair, clutching at himself as he let out a smothered scream. He ran from the room like he was fleeing the fires of hell. Across the room, Nina heard Cecily puke.</p><p>“He wouldn’t,” Connor whispered, just a few chairs away from Nina. “H-he wouldn’t d-do that...”</p><p>“How the heck did he know that?” Iris shouted.</p><p>Nina took off her headphones, took out her disc, and stood up. Motivation, Monosumi had said. Just a few minutes ago they had adjusted as much as they could, forming a small team and almost forgetting their circumstances. Monosumi’s videos had undone that in seconds. There wasn’t a single person in the room unshaken. Most of them were actively freaking out, but the two seemingly calm ones unnerved Nina the most - Aaron held his disc in both hands, muttering to himself, glancing around the room like a caged animal, and Veronica was just staring at the now blank screen, she hadn’t moved or spoken, just stared with a dark, hollow gaze. This was no longer the same group that they’d been minutes ago, with a loose sense of camaraderie and trust. The sense of constant danger had returned.</p><p>Nina didn’t have to see the other videos to know what was on them. They’d all been given a motive for murder.</p>
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<a name="section0006"><h2>6. Caesar In The Senate</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The air around Nina seemed heavy with fear. She could sense the tension in every person she met. Perhaps it was from their videos. Perhaps it was from the knowledge that someone among them might be driven to murder. But there was something else that sent chills down Nina’s spine, as she went through the halls and took count of every person she saw and noticed who she didn’t.</p><p>Titus had vanished.</p><p>No one had seen him since they’d watched the videos a few hours ago. He had been the first to leave, rushing out the door without a word. They had found the door to his room ajar, the inside undisturbed except for the disc, shattered on the ground. While the others had rushed off to search the rest of the building, Nina remained behind, something about the place seeming... odd to her. Nina scanned the room and her eyes went to the air vent. As she examined it, she found spots where the thin layer of dust had been brushed off by someone’s grip on the metal, and the screws twisted far easier than they should have.</p><p>It took a few minutes, but Nina removed the screws and carefully took off the grate. She drug a chair over to the high vent, then climbed into the opening. She couldn’t get very far - the vent was tight, but she supposed Titus could have slipped through. In fact, there was a smudge in the dust, like someone had crawled through here...</p><p>Nina pulled herself out of the vent with some difficulty, then her foot hit the chair at an odd angle and for a brief second she felt as if the world had paused as she grasped the gravity of her mistake.</p><p>She did not hit the ground, although she heard the chair topple beside her. Instead Nina realized she was staring up at Veronica, who had caught her a few feet above the ground.</p><p>“Woah, are you okay?” Veronica asked. “What are you doing in here?”</p><p>Nina quietly wished she would put her down, but tolerated it long enough to get her balance back. “I’m fine. Any sign of Titus?”</p><p>“Nope. That’s why I came to find you, to be honest, everyone else was together and we thought you two might be murdering each other. But you seem as clueless as the rest of us.”</p><p>“Well, not quite.” Nina pointed to the open vent. “You’re about Titus’ size, correct?”</p><p>“Say no more, Nines.” And with that she vaulted up the wall and crawled into the vent, vanishing from sight in an instant. “Man, kind of tight in here. Oh hey, I found a hat.” It took Veronica a bit longer to leave the vent, but she emerged holding the baseball cap Titus had been wearing for the last week. “Wonder what that’s doing there.”</p><p>“You said everyone else was together?”</p><p>“Yeah, they’re all in the cafeteria.”</p><p>“Then he’s trying to escape.” Nina shrugged and began to leave. “Not a bad idea, using the vents. Although I’m surprised Monosumi didn’t do something to prevent that.”</p><p>There was a scream from above them, muffled by the layers of tile and metal, but the pain and terror it conveyed was as clear as day.</p><p>Panic shot through Nina’s body as she froze, her mind racing. Veronica had no hesitation - she climbed back into the vent and vanished in seconds, the clattering sound of her movements fading out as she searched.</p><p>“What was that?” Iris shouted from the hallway. Nina swung the door open, letting her, Aaron, and Heather rush into the room. “I heard screaming, I saw Veronica rush in here - did she do something?”</p><p>“Titus is in the vents,” Nina replied, the slightest panic edging into her voice. “He’s the one who screamed.”</p><p>“The vents?” Aaron gave the open hatch an odd look. “I didn’t know a person could fit in those.”</p><p>“Well, maybe not people on the larger side, I doubt Nina or I could fit in there.” Heather paused making a few estimations. “But Titus is really small, so are you and Veronica. Maybe you three could leave and find help.”</p><p>“I’m not leaving you guys.” Aaron’s voice was resolute.</p><p>“I doubt we could anyway.” Veronica’s voice echoed down the vent as she slipped out into the open room, struggling for footing as she perched precariously on the table’s edge. “Not after what those traps did to Titus.”</p><p>With more strength than they expected Veronica pulled Titus out of the vents. It took a moment to detect what was wrong with him, curled up and shaking in Veronica’s arms. It took a moment to remember his shirt wasn’t supposed to be red. There were two long and deep gashes into his stomach, spilling dark red blood that stained everything it touched, flowing in such large amounts it seemed to soak the whole room in scarlet. Titus wasn’t moving, didn’t respond to anything around him, the only sign he was alive was the involuntary, terrified shaking and the pained breaths, which sounded like it took every shred of willpower to hold on to life.</p><p>In her role as a detective, Nina saw a lot of death. Stabbings, shootings, poisons, those were the most common, but there was little that could she hadn’t seen, long used to the blood and gore her job saw. But it was different now. This wasn’t a dead body with only a name on paper to know it by, it was a barely living man, someone she knew, someone bleeding out on the floor in front of her. The quiet sounds, the pain, the knowledge of who this person was, they made the experience moot and the scarlet splatters almost too much to bear.</p><p>“Holy crap.” Heather kneeled beside him, taking off her jacket and using it to try and stem the flow of blood. “How did this happen?”</p><p>“There was a huge fan in the vent,” Veronica said, an uncharacteristic distress in her voice. “It was splattered with blood. What kind of damage is there?”</p><p>Nina steeled herself and kneeled beside the man, then in one robotic motion she pulled away Heather’s jacket. She felt bile rise in her throat at the sight of the wounds, but forced it down - she had a job to do, after all. Gently she pried the cloth and skin apart, and gradually discovered that despite the length and pain of the two gashes, they stopped just short of any organs. Maybe they wouldn’t be fatal. Maybe they could save him.</p><p>The hope almost made it worse.</p><p>“What’s going on?” Connor yelled as he rushed in, Dante a few steps behind him.</p><p>“Nothing vital’s been hit,” Nina said, her voice shaking like she still couldn’t quite believe what she was saying. “He still has a chance, as long as we can stem the blood flow-“</p><p>Without a word Dante swept Titus up in his arms and rushed out the door, sprinting down the hall with an odd sense of purpose and direction, shouts arising from the bystanders in the hallway as they were thrown into chaos. “Hey, what are you doing?” Aaron yelled. “We need to help him!”</p><p>Veronica was after him in a heartbeat, three steps behind him down the hall, as the rest of the group followed them at a frantic but slower pace.</p><p>They found him pounding on a locked door. “Monosumi!” Dante roared. “I know you can hear me, open this stupid door or a man’s going to die!”</p><p>“Hey, what’s all the ruckus about?” Monosumi popped down from the ceiling in a giant splosh before reforming into their usual self. “Oh my, he does not look good. Shouldn’t have tried the vents.”</p><p>“Your stupid fan did this, open this door.”</p><p>Monosumi almost didn’t know how to respond to Dante’s sudden seriousness. “And why, exactly, do you want to go in that room?”</p><p>Before he could respond Veronica pushed past them and kicked the door off its hinges. Dante ran in, flipping on the lights, and as Nina walked in she ended up with as many questions as answers. It was a hospital wing that lacked the dust of the rest of the place, with clean walls painted a pale blue and an overly clean smell drifting over rows of cabinets and empty beds.</p><p>Dante almost threw Titus onto a bed, then ransacked the cabinets as he found medical supplies and went to work, stripping off what remained of Titus’s shirt and trying to clean the wounds.</p><p>Monosumi sighed and turned back to the rest of the group. “He’ll be fine, don’t worry. Don’t want anyone to die from an accident anyway.”</p><p>“But murder’s fine, eh?” Aaron said in almost a whisper.</p><p>“I heard that. Anyway, you might as well clear out, don’t want to disturb the doctor.”</p><p>“No.” The voice was Blair’s, calmer and quieter than Nina thought it could be. “I need to talk to him. How on earth did he know this was a medical thing? There are so many locked doors-“</p><p>“Dude, he’s trying to save Titus,” Veronica growled. “Your questions can wait until the kid’s not bleeding out.”</p><p>“Oho, you can’t talk, Doctor,” Blair said with a dark grin and malice in his eyes. “I wanna talk to you too. I watched your video.”</p><p>Pure fear flooded into Veronica’s eyes. “N-now you listen here-“</p><p>“Or what? What are you going to do?”</p><p>“That’s enough, guys.” Connor pushed the two of them apart. “Blair, if you have a problem with Veronica, talk about it in private. I believe everyone’s videos were personal and shouldn’t be openly shared-“</p><p>“Oh, shut up, you’re not my dad.” Blair shoved his hand away, and Nina could see his desperation starting to bubble to the surface. “And what’s up with your buddy over there? How’d he know about this place?”</p><p>Connor thought for a moment. “I don’t know,” he finally said. “But you’ll have to ask him after he helps Titus-“</p><p>Blair punched Connor.</p><p>It was a single motion that silenced Connor and the other conversations around the room. It wasn’t the brightest move - despite his quiet and calm demeanor, Connor towered over anyone else and had a wide frame to go with it - but it was clear to Nina that Blair couldn’t care less. In his mind he was Caesar in the senate, surrounded by daggers and false smiles. To her he was a caged animal, cornered and desperate to claw its way free.</p><p>“Yeah, not so talkative now, are you?” Blair said with a frantic burst of laughter. Connor didn’t speak and barely moved. “What, aren’t you gonna fight back? Or are you gonna try to talk us out of this again? Come on, say something.” Those slight veneers of confidence vanished from Blair’s face at Connor’s silence. “Say something or I’ll hit you again, I’m not scared of you, you little-“</p><p>He swung again, and this time Connor caught his fist in midair, glaring down at his opponent. Then he swung Blair’s arm down, throwing him off balance and slamming his arm into a nearby table.</p><p>There was a crack and a scream. The whole room seemed to snap awake with those sounds as they realized Blair was lying on the floor, clutching his arm, bent one too many times and twisted out at an odd angle.</p><p>“You bitch!” He yelled, more from pain than anger. Already flooded with regret, Connor trued to help him up, only for Blair to scramble away. “Get away from me, you’re gonna - you want to k-kill me, don’t you? You’re gonna-“ Blair’s voice became incomprehensible rambling as he held his arm and tried to get away from the rest of the group.</p><p>“Well, seems the videos are doing their job,” Monosumi said with a dissonant serene tone. Long black tendrils reached from their back and picked up the still screaming Blair, putting him on a bed a few spots from Titus and Dante. “Ah, quit whining, it’s just a broken arm. You’ll live.”</p><p>“So will Titus,” Dante added, finally seeming in some state of peace. “I’ve managed to stop the bleeding and he’s stabilized, but I would still like to stay here. It seems Blair needs help as well.”</p><p>“Yeah, take care of them.” Monosumi said as they left. “But no one was trying to kill yet, and two of you are already stuck in here.” A too wide grin spreading across their face as they waltzed out the open door. “Just think about that.”</p><p>The group was silent, like a spell had fallen over the room. Roxy was the first to speak. “Well, uh... that was...”</p><p>“We’re gonna die,” Sora whispered.</p><p>“No one’s going to die,” Iris barked. “See, Dante took care of Titus, he seems to be doing well with Blair. As long as no one tries any murder, we should be fine.” Still, she didn’t seem quite convinced of her own words as she stumbled out of the room.</p><p>One by one they left, until Nina was alone with the sleeping Titus and the near silent Dante and Blair. Dante rushed out, muttered something about tape, and Nina didn’t understand why she couldn’t force herself to leave.</p><p>“I’m going to die.”</p><p>The voice was Blair’s. “No, you’re not. Connor wasn’t trying to kill you.”</p><p>“You think I’m worried about Connor?” Blair chuckled, his voice dripping with... despair, she supposed. “Look, I got everyone’s videos and watched them. I know what everyone has to hide. I know just how dangerous they all are. Especially that little punk with the ponytail. She’d kill in a heartbeat.”</p><p>Nina wasn’t sure why that made her so defensive. “I doubt that.”</p><p>“You don’t know what I know.”</p><p>“Then why are you talking to me?”</p><p>“Because you’re decent, Miss Detective. And that’s more than can be said for most.”</p><p>Another silence fell over the room, and this time Nina left, warnings ringing in her ears as she struggled with her own thoughts and how in a day their little world had been uprooted, reminding them of the danger they had already learned to ignore.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Hey, sorry it’s taken so long to update. I’ve been dealing with school and some personal stuff, so updates will likely be sporadic at best.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
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